Keyboard attachment for autopianos.



O. HERRMANN.

KEYBOARD ATTACHMENT FOR AUTOPIANOS.

APPLIOATION FILED APRA?. 1913.

1,070,256. v Patented Aug. 12, 1913.

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M34 z5 I 'r I Vv? C\`YA A @gi- Q 0 57% I WITNESSES ATTO R N EY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OSCAR HERRMANN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

KEYBOARD ATTACHMENT FOR AUTOPIANOS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OSCAR HERRMANN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Keyboard Attachment for Autopianos, .of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to improve ments in keyboard attachments for autopianos of the self-contained type or of any other type, and its object is to provide for the production of sounds lotherwise than, and in addition to the strings of the piano or whatever other sound producing devices may be present in the instrument to which the attachment is to be applied.

It will be assumed for convenience of description that the attachment is to be applied to the keyboard of a self-playing piano, and the invention comprises a support or casing so constructed and arranged that it may be readily mounted above the keyboard and by means of adjusting devices be secured to the piano casing adjacent the keyboard in suitable relation to the keys whatever be the style of the piano casing. The attachment is provided. with electric contacts so arranged as to be held in the open circuit condition by the normal position of the keys of the keyboard, but when the keys are depressed, as occurs in the operation of the auto-player, one of the con` tacts of each pair will follow the respective keys and be thereby brought into electrical engagement with the other contact, thus completing an electric circuit which may in clude an electrically operated sound producing device such as a bell, it being designed to provide the attachment with a series of electric bells or other electrically operated sound producing device properly tuned to correspond to the keys of the keyboard, so that when the keys are operating to cause the production of music by the i piano there is provided an accompaniment of appropriate bell tones, thus adding greatly to the pleasing etlect of the instrument. For convenience of description bells will be considered as the auxiliary sound producing device, but the invention is not limited to such particular means, wherefore the term bells as used hereinafter in the description and claims is to be interpreted broadly enough to cover any auxiliary Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 17, 1913.

Patented Aug. 12,1913.

Serial No. 761,831.

sound producing devices adapted to the purposes of the present invention.

The invention will be bestunderstood from a consideration of the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, with the further undern standing that while the drawings show a practical form of the invention, the latter is not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawings, but may be changed and modified so long as such changes and modiiications mark no material departure fro-rn the salient features of the invention.

In the drawings Figure 1 is an elevation with some parts in section of an attachment embodying the present invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical front to rear section or the structure of Fig. 1 but drawn on a larger scale and indicating some of the bells diagrammatically and also indicating a portion of the piano structure. Fig. 3 is a perspective View with parts in section of a portion of the device illustrated in Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a keyboard provided with the usual white keys 1 and black keys 2, and there is also indicated in Fig. 1 more or less schematically a portion of the piano casing 3 with the usual upright sides 4t at the ends of the keyboard, and this showing of the casing may be taken as typical of any suitable piano casing7 especially of a piano of the auto-player type which may be, as is Otten the case, played by hand when the auto-- matic side of the structure is not in operation. There is also provided a box or casing 5 having a bottom member 6, a top member 7 and sides 8, 9, respectively. This casing may be made quite light since it has but little weight to support, and is of a length approximately that of the keyboard when all the keys are to have bell or like attachments, but where the supplemental sound producing means is of less length than the keyboard, the casing may be correspondingly shorter. At each end the casing may be closed by end pieces 10 and extending through these end pieces adjacent to the front and rear sides 8 and 9 are strips 11 which may be considerably wider than thick, and these strips are set on edge and are secured to the respective front and rear sides by screws 12, while the front and rear sides 3 and 9 may be provided with longitudinal slots 13, so that the strips 11 may be projected more or less from the ends of the casing 5 and held in the projected position by tightening the screws 12. Each strip 11 at its outer end is reduced in width as indicated at 14, and there carries a set screw 15 extending through a slot 16 in a post 17 having at an intermediate point of its length a lateral offset 18 designed to rest upon the terminal member 4 of the casing for the keyboard. rlhe post 17 is continued below the offset member 18 and is there provided with a screw 19 carrying at one end a pad 20 and at the other end provided with a milled head 21, the screw 19 serving as a clamp screw to engage the outer face of the end member 4 of the keyboard casing so that when the posts 17 are in proper position with the clamp screws 19 turned to cause the pads 20 to engage the outer face of the ends 4, the whole structure is clamped firmly in place and is adjusted longitudinally with relation to the keyboard to bring the parts to be described in proper position with reference to the keys 1 and 2, the height of the casing 5 above the keyboard being determined by the adjustment ol the strips 11 lengthwise of the slots 16.

Extending longitudinally of the bottom board 6 is a rod 22 supported by posts or standards 23a erected on the bottom board 6 near the rear edge thereof and carried by this rod, so as to turn thereon snugly yet freely, are Contact bars 23, 24, respectively, the contact bars 23 corresponding in number and spacing to the white keys of the keyboard and the contact bars 24 corresponding in number and spacing to the black keys of the keyboard. The bars 23 are all straight bars and each formed at one end with an eye 25 encircling the rod 22 tight enough to make good electric contact, but not so tightly as to prevent free movement of the bar 23 about the rod 22 as a pivot support. Near the free end of each bar 23 is a pin 26 rising from the board 6 and at the upper end having a lateral offset portion 27 in the path of the bar 23 near its free end. Between the pin 26 and the rod 22 the bar 23 carries a stem 28 hung from the bar at the upper' end of the stem by an eye 29 in good electrical contact with the bar. Each stem 28 extends through an upright hole or passage 30 through the board 6 and is long enough to reach a white key, the lower end of the stem carrying a pad 31 to rest upon the surface of the respective key 1 without injury thereto.

Each bar 24 projects forwardly for a distance from the rod 22 to substantial parallelism with the bottom member 6 and then is bent to form a continuation 24a at substantially right angles to the main portion of the bar 24, and this continuation 24a extends through a respective slot 32 in the board 6 and is long enough to make contactwith the black key 2 through a pad 33 on the lower end of the extension 24a, the pad protecting the key from injury. Since the pivot support 22 of each bar 24 is at some little distance to one side of the slot 32 the latter is elongated from front to rear to provide for the oli'set of the pivot support of the bar with relation to the slot. In underriding relation to each. bar 24 is a finger 34 projecting laterally from a pin 35 rising from the board 6 in the path of movement of the bar 24 when following a downwardly moving black key, the pin 35 and finger l 34 corresponding to the pin 26, and its lateral continuation or linger 27. Each bar 23 and 24 may have a Spring 36 connected thereto tending to keep the pad 31 or 33 in contact with a respective key 1 or 2, but this spring is only a light spring insufficient to aect the keys of the keyboard, but suiiicient to cause movement of the contact bars 23 or 24 to follow up the keys when the latter are depressed.

The rod 22 has a conductor 37 fast thereto. Each pin 26 has a conductor 38 fast thereto and each pin 35 has a conductor 39 tast thereto. The conductor 37 may be carried to a battery 40 or other source of electric current and each conductor 38 and 39 may be carried to a respective electric bell 41 or 42, as the case may be, and these bells may be connected in multiple by a conductor 43 to the other side of the battery 40 through a switch 44.

The bells 41 and 42, which as before stated are indicative of any electrically operated sound producing means supplemental to the strings of the piano, are suitably tuned toagree with the piano and are in number equal to the keys off the piano keyboard or may be of greater or lesser number, and, moreover, may be located at any convenient point, whether inside of the main case of the piano or elsewhere, and the whole structure, including the casing 5 and parts carried thereby may be wholly independent of the piano so far as any permanent connection therewith is concerned. The structure may be so arranged that by loosening the clamp screws 19 the casing 5 together with the bells may be wholly removed from the piano player without the necessity of any tools whatever.

Let it be assumed that the casing 5 has been properly adjusted with relation to the keys of the keyboard and the proper electrical connections have been made, then all the circuits are broken at the bars 23 and 24 and the iXed contact fingers 27 and 34. It, now, the piano player be set into operation, the white and black keys are depressed as the musical composition demands, and

on the depression of' a white key the corresponding bar 23 will move downwardly into engagement with the contact finger 27, thus completing an electrical circuit through a corresponding bell, the switch 4a having been closed. This will cause a bell to ring so long as the -electrical circuit is maintained and to cease ringing as soon as the white key rises to its normal position, thereby lifting the bar 23 off from the contact finger 27. The sam-e thing occurs with the bars 24 when the black keys are lowered, in which case contact is made between the respective bar 2li and finger 34 and the corresponding bell is set into vibration. By making the fingers 27 and Bel somewhat elastic, a certainty of electric contact is insured becaus-e there is a slight wiping action, and accumulations of dust or dirt do not prevent the establishment of the proper electrical contact, as might occur if the contacts were without the wiping action.

The white keys of the piano keyboard are considerably longer than the black keys, so far as th-e visible portion is concerned, and the bars 23 and Q4 so far as their straight portions are concerned are of similar differences of length, so that they both may have a common mounting on the rod 22, while the key engaging portion controlled by each bar 23 is nearer the front of' the keyboard than the key engaging portion controlled by each bar 24k.

that is claimed is l. An attachment for keyed musical instruments comprising a suitable number of electrically responsive sound producing means tuned to correspond individually to the tones represented by respective keys of' the instrument, and a container provided with means for its attachment to the keyboard of' the keyed musical instrument and containing pairs of electric contacts in number corresponding to the numb-er ot' electrically responsive sound producing means, each pair of contacts comprising a relatively fixed contact with the casing and another pivoted contact within the casing having a key engaging member extending through the casing and situated to engage a respective key of the musical instrument.

2. An attachment for keyed musical instruments comprising a suitable numb-er of electrically responsive sound producing means, a casing provided with means for attaching it to the keyboard of the musical instrument in overriding relation to the keys thereof, and circuit closing devices corresponding in number to the sound producing means and electrically connected thereto, said circuit closing devices comprising a rod within the casing, bars pivotally mounted on the rod and extending respectively different distances from the rod and located thereon in correspondence with the different keys of' the keyed instrument, each bar having anextension projecting through the casing into engagement with a respective key of the keyboard when the casing is .in position thereover, and other circuit terminals individual to the bars located thereunder and in turn carried by casing within the same, the rod common to the bars and circuit terminals being connected to the electrically responsive sound producing means.

f3. An attachment for keyed musical instruments comprising a suitable number of electrically responsive sound producing means, a casing adapted to be located above the keyboard of the keyed musical instrument and provided with terminal extensions, clamp members carried by the terminal extensions in position to rest upon the end portions of the casing of the keyed musical instrument adjacent to the keyboard and also provided with clamping members for engaging said musical instrument casing, and circuit closing devices within the firstnamed casing electrically connected to the electrically responsive means, said circuit closing devices comprising a rod, bars pivoted thereon and extending respectively different distances therefrom in accordance with like extensions of the keys of the musical instrument, cach bar having a key engaging port-ion extending through the bottom of the first-named casing for a distance to engage a respective key of the musical instrument, and circuit terminals individual to the bars and carried by the bottom member of the first-named casing interior to said casing in the path of the respective bars and normally out of engagement with the latter, but spaced therefrom to be engaged by the bars on the depression of the keys of the musical instrument.

l. A keyboard attachment for auto-pianos, comprising a casing having means at the ends for supporting the casing on the terminal portions of the keyboard structure, and means for clamping the casing thereto, and circuit closing devices within the casing comprising pivoted bars each arranged to constitute one terminal of an electric circuit, and each bar having an extension projecting through the bottom of the casing into position to engage a respective key, the extension for the black keys of the instrument each being in one piece with the respective bar, and contact fingers carried by the bottom member of the casing within the latter and extending beneath the respective bars and normally spaced therefrom, said fingers each being arranged to constitute the terminal of an electric circuit.

5. An attachment for keyed musical instruments comprising a casing adapted to be supported above the keyboard of the musical instrument and provided With circuit closing devices in position to engage the keys of the musical instrument, and means for supporting the casing Comprising,` strips at the end of the Casing movable into and out of the latter, and posts adjustably connected to the strips and each provided With an eX- tension adapted to rest upon terminal portions of the keyboard structure and also provided With clamping members adapted to engage the terminal portions of the keyboard structure to clamp the posts and casing` in position.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto aiiixed my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

OSCAR HERRMANN.

Vitnesses:

OTTO GREENBERGER, GEORGE C. VON HAMWITZ.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

